Thanks for the info.. I'll give that a shot this week. I just didn't want to make anything permanant until I was sure that it was the right thing to do. I'd have been really pissed at myself for ruining it while "trying" to help the situation. As for the hard tail, I haven't seen one of those... all the Strats I see that people aren't using the trem on, the unit sits flush with the body the way I want mine to.

About the foam comment - 2 things really.
1. Do you think that the space for where the springs go affects the sound/tone of the guitar? (which leads into question 2)
2, does the foam help the sound? and should it be packed in tightly?

thanks again for the replys... I'd rather spend hours figuring this out than never learn it, ya know?